/ ˌekspləˈreɪʃn; NAmE / noun [ C , U ]
1.
the act of travelling through a place in order to find out about it or look for sth in it :
the exploration of space
oil exploration (= searching for oil in the ground)
2.
an examination of sth in order to find out about it :
the book's explorations of the human mind
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WORD ORIGIN
mid 16th cent. (denoting an investigation): from French , or from Latin exploratio(n-) , from the verb explorare search out, from ex- out + plorare utter a cry. The current sense dates from the early 19th cent.